Microsoft reveals new Outlook.com email client

Microsoft has rung the changes by launching Outlook.com, a revamped online email client that looks set to eventually replace the ageing Hotmail service.

Outlook.com, built from the ground up, will bolster the new Outlook desktop application and be available to anyone, whether they use Windows or not. It’s cloud-based and able to sync your emails across various devices, and available to anyone with a Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo Mail address.

Messages are sorted depending on who they’re from, and included Office Web Apps mean you can open and edit attachments direct from your inbox. Accounts can be synced with services like Twitter, Facebook and, in the future, Skype, while cloud storage is described as “virtually unlimited”.

Microsoft has no plans to dump Hotmail immediately, but any Hotmail user can “upgrade” their account to Outlook.com (with an accompanying @outlook.com email address), and the company reckons most people will eventually migrate to the new service.

A preview is available if you want to give Outlook.com a test drive today: check it out here.